How to Make Chunky Candles

Ingredients Found At Natures Garden:

Directions:

How to Make Chunky Candles

They're fun, creative, and unique! They're candles with a little bit of chunk! You're going to have fun making these Chunky Candles. This Chunky Candle Class will show you exactly how it is done!

When we made candles, one of the biggest pains in the butt was the dreaded re-pour on votives. When we hired employees to make the candles for us, the labor hours involved with making regular votives made them almost non-profitable. So....in response to that we came up with a very unique votive that does not require a repour....and better yet....a votive unlike anyone that I had seen on the market. We called them Chunky votives! These sold like hot cakes for us!

This is how you make the Chunky votives:

1. Make your chunks - Take a non-stick jelly roll pan (you can get these for dirt cheap at flea markets!) Now melt 2 lbs. of votive wax. Add your coloring to the votive wax (coloring it in a way that will compliment the scent of candle you will be making). Example: When we made chocolate chip cookie chunky votives, we would make this votive wax dark brown so that we would have the chocolate chunk look. Add 1/4 tsp. vybar 103 for extra scent throw. Then add 1/4 cup of fragrance oil. Give it a good stir and pour the entire contents into the jelly roll pan. Allow this to cool, but not set up completely. When the wax is still soft enough to cut it, take a knife and cut the entire pan into small chunks. Allow the pan to set up completely, and remove all of the chunks and store in a large plastic lidded container. When we made chunks, we would make numerous pans at one time so that we would have them ahead of time.

2. Make your Votives - Line your votive molds up on your benches and get ready to pour like mad! Melt 4 lbs. of votive wax, add 1 tsp vybar 103 to the mixture, DO NOT ADD COLOR, and add 1/2 cup fragrance oil. Give it a good stir. You want to pour at about 160-165. Go down the line and fill all of your votive cups about 3/4 of the way full. There is no need for you to save any of this wax for a repour! Now, grab a hand full of wicks and go down the line and straighten them and stick them in the votive molds CENTERED. The wicks should stick to the small amount of wax in the molds that has begun to set up...if not, give it a minute and try putting your wicks in again.

3. Chunking your Votives- When you see a fine film of wax that is setting up on the top of your votives, grab a hand-full of chunks and go down the line and drop chunks into the votives until the votive mold is filled. The neat thing is that the chunks release the air pockets that are normally formed when using votive wax....creating a situation where you do not have to do a repour! Make sure you can see some of the chunks coming out of the wax...this gives them the COOLEST look! Go back through and make sure that your wicks are centered. Allow them to cool at room temperature and then pop them out of their molds...BINGO you're done!

4. Making Chunky Pillar Candles: You will follow the same steps as mentioned above. Make absolutely sure that you have added plenty of chunks to your mold or else you may have to do a repour on your pillars.